


About The Knight In Her Backyard

by Yvreina



Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Bathing/Washing, Cullen in modern world, F/M, Hypothermia, I gonna update the tags with incoming chapters! :), Modern Character in Thedas, Modern Girl in Thedas, Multi, No undies for Cullen ..., Nudity, Slow Burn, Strong Language
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-15
Updated: 2016-01-03
Packaged: 2018-05-01 19:22:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,268
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5217755
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yvreina/pseuds/Yvreina
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"There was a man. A tall man with a fur adorned coat, lying in her garden. He looked like a king of the old times, his hands straight alongside his body, his bloodstained armor sparkling in the moon’s light. His fair skin glittered in the pale shine of the nightly heavens and his golden hair was matted and clung to his beautifully sculpted forehead. His blueish lips were parted slightly and hushed moans escaped his mouth. Tiny sweat droplets gleamed on his handsome face, adding to the magic gloom appearing to surround him. There was Prince fucking Charming lying in the snow - right there in her backyard! ... "</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. All the things that Kathrine (maybe) hate

**Author's Note:**

> Hey folks!  
> That’s my first fanfic ever. So- pls be kind, I'm really self-conscious about everything I'm writing - but nonetheless I appreciate every comment and criticism a lot. <3
> 
> Thanks to my awesome and fantastic Beta NavyGal - she really helps me with the tricks of the trade, so to speak :D She's great!  
> And I hope that you gonna enjoy the first chapter of this currently-not-so-long-but-I’m-working-on-it-fanfic :D

_“Evelyn, run!”_

_Screams. Greenish flickering of bursting flames. She ran for her life. He ran. And the world fell into pieces. A sudden cry, desperate and touching the inners part of his soul. “Cullen, no!” Suddenly, he lost the grip of her strong, but gentle hand pushed away by something powerful and fierce. And then- only darkness, a last glimpse of her blue eyes ornamenting her blood-covered face like a pair of blazing stars, glistening with tears, the green light of the anchor reflecting beautifully in her saucer-eyed gaze._

_All those impressions were replaced by the feeling of falling down into a great maelstrom of never-ending blackness._

 

Kathrine hated the winter. She hated the cold, she hated the snow, she hated the early sunset, she hated the happy people buying presents for all their lovely relatives and their families as well as she hated the slippery roads and loathed the immense heating bill.

In her present mood there was barely a thing she didn’t hate. Katie was tired, her brownish hair was covered in ketchup (the tragic result of working in the children’s corner today), her shoes were leaky and the cold, wet snow naturally found a way to the inner lining of the already mentioned boots, much to her disliking.

Luckily she knew the way to the house of granny Claudia, no, to her house, by heart.

 Probably there were some angels actually existing and protecting her (even if she doubted it strongly), but it was a honest to god miracle that Katie didn’t simply crash her car into the next streetlight with how exhausted she was.

Maybe she didn’t hate the winter, or the cold, or all the people she saw through the windows of her old, red pickup, driving back home from work, those silhouettes bustling around from store to store, looking forward to Christmas and searching for the perfect presents.

Maybe Kathrine just hated the fact, that all those people had a family, that they didn’t live all alone in the old house of her recently deceased (and profoundly missed) grandma with those annoyingly squeaking planks but full of wonderful childhood memories.

Maybe she just couldn’t bear the fact that their parents weren’t dead, that they hadn’t to work halftimes in a horribly noisy property market for their livelihood and learning for exams simultaneously.

She parked her car in it’s usual spot, in front of the unlit windows of her house. The truck‘s door creaked in protest as she got out.

Her gloved hand stroked the rusty roof in a gentle gesture, silently wishing her car good night. What? She was lonely. And talking to a car wasn’t strange. Or was it? Katie didn’t know and honestly: She didn’t mind either. Her thoughts circled around a hot chocolate and an episode of something running on the TV (or maybe a warm bath and a nice book?), she wanted to relax – and to forget the hard day she somehow lived through.

Kathrine rummaged around in her handbag searching for her keys. Those damned things were always disappearing ! Suddenly a soft metallic rattle followed by a really loud, clapping sound from her backyard caught her attention. She stopped to listen while the key remained unturned in the door. The sudden crack that followed made her heat race. Suddenly Katie heard a scuffed moan. From her backyard. It made her heart race and her breath quickened immediately, leaving little white puffs in the air as she panted.

The little puffs remembered her of a train. Usually Kathrine would laugh about that silly thought. But the young woman was too afraid to think about anything other than those strange noises. 

A burglar? A murderer? Huge metallic aliens? What the heck was that noise?!  What should she do? Call the police? She even doubted that the sheriff was available, not to mention any (downright) dunderhead from the head office. Katie lived in a very small town and if she called the police because of a strange noise in her backyard the policemen would laugh at her– That was for sure, because nothing happens here. No crime, no fun, just nothing peculiar exciting. Another metallic blare followed by a moan and a dull clash sound interrupted the flow of her thoughts.  
She had to face whatever it was on her own. She  had to know what  it was and waiting, all afraid and jittering wouldn’t make those strange, mysterious noises disappear all on their own.

First Katie looked around, searching for something she could protect herself. In the end, Kathrine decided that a tiny garbage can lid could be quite a dangerous weapon if used correctly. Never mind the fact that the last time she’d hit a person was in kindergarten. With a plastic shovel, while defending the life of an innocent bee. But that is another story. Gathering all her courage she stepped through the old, slightly mouldy garden gate.. Every step leaving fresh footprints in the ankle high snow, which glittered in the full moon’s light.

She stepped carefully, trying to be as quiet as she possibly could. The lid slipped out of her delicate hands and her mouth opened in a surprised “O” as she saw the source of all her fuss and fear.

There was a man. A tall man with a fur adorned coat, lying in her garden. He looked like a king of the old times, his hands straight alongside his body, his bloodstained armor sparkling in the moon’s light. His fair skin glittered in the pale shine of the nightly heavens and his golden hair was matted and clung to his beautifully sculpted forehead. His blueish lips were parted slightly and hushed moans escaped his mouth. Tiny sweat droplets gleamed on his handsome face, adding to the magic gloom appearing to surround him. There was Prince fucking Charming lying in the snow - right there in her backyard!

Something green sparkled nearby his right hand as he writhed in pain.

“Oh…Oh my goodness! Oh my…! For god’s sake! …” Katie stammered, completely paralysed by the god laying in her backyard. All her tiredness disappeared suppressed by a sudden rush of adrenaline. She stared doe-eyed at the armoured stranger, watched him as he tried to stand up reeling and tottering (and producing those not-so-strange-anymore metallic sounds) and observed motionless how he fell back into the snow. And then he whined – a sound full of pain, barely as loud as a whisper – but that sound broke through her shock and forced her to react. She threw the garbage can lid completely thoughtlessly into the snow and ran up to the wounded stranger, kneeled in front of him. She  looked straight into his wide  amber eyes, which were currently staring dazed into the star covered sky. She registered a bloodstain running down like a red river from a wound near to his temple. That wound looked like a very bad scratch, but it was a head wound and she was no doctor. Who knows how dangerous that “scratch” really was?

“Hey … Hey buddy…” she spoke hushed and soft, as if she was talking to a little child.  Carefully she gave his shoulder a light shake, but the man didn’t react to the soft touch at all. He just stared with those wide opened eyes, the only emotion on his handsome face was a hint of horror. Maybe he was stoned? Maybe that wasn’t prince charming in her backyard, but just a stoned freak from a renaissance fair? A wacko on a really bad trip? That would certainly explain the armour. Suddenly Kathrine saw a green flickering on the stranger’s right hand . Horrfied, she tried not to scream. The green light was like fire, only unlike any fire she’d seen before. The man whined in pain as it flickered, curing the offening limb into the frost ornamented plate on his chest and Katie jumped up, incredibly terrified by that green flickering on the man’s hand. Maybe not a freak then, but an ‘effing alien?

 “Oh my...What should I do…?” she kneeled once again near the man, shaking him violently and screaming hysterically. “Hey you, what the fuck are you doing here? HELLO?! WHO ARE YOU? WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY BACKYARD! HELLO!!!?”

“Cold.” The voice was rough and husky.

“What?” she was proud at how calm her voice sounded, but stunned he’d answered at all. Honestly, Kathrine didn’t expect a coherent answer. Did he really say something? “Hello? Are you…Oh my god…? You’re freaking cold!” she stroke lightly over the ice-cold forehand of the stranger and suddenly Katie registered that that man was shivering badly. His lips were dangerously blue, his face nearly as white as the snow his head was laying in. “We have to bring you inside. Do you understand?” Kathrine wasn’t sure if he even heard her. He just gawked absently, his expression something between blank and forlorn. “We have to…Jesus, are you heavy!” Kathrine strained as she tried to pull the limp body of the stranger to his feet, but the sheer unbearable weight of the man and his armour was too much for her.

Balls! What was she going to do? 


	2. All the things that Kathrine (as well as most men) just don’t do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey folks :D
> 
> There is the next chapter! I hope you like it, even if I uploaded it later than announced.You know...RL ^^"  
> Did I already mention that NavyGal is a fantastic Beta? in this chapter she literally saved Cullen's life! xD But that's another story...
> 
> Enjoy reading and thanks for the kudos ! <3

“Oh my… the neighbours will think that I murdered him and was trying to hide the body or something…Or worse…Oh Jesus…Help me.” She murmured nervously as she pushed the wheelbarrow with the unusual cargo along the narrow path from the garden to her front door. The man lay limp inside the wheelbarrow, his amber eyes were closed now, and she hoped he’d only passed out.  
  
On the one hand she was somehow happy to escape that intense staring from his dazed gaze. It was really creepy. Even considering the general circumstances. On the other hand Kathrine was really worried. He was unconscious as she tried to pull him up and that couldn’t be a good sign, could it? She didn’t know what to do. He was freezing, but really confused, and judging from the blood all over him, he’d been in some sought of fight. But how exactly had he landed in her garden? She didn’t see any footprints, and that mysterious glowing – what the heck was it? He couldn’t just have fallen from the sky, two days before Christmas eve- couldn’t he? Maybe Santa came early this year. But even if he looked absolutely angelic- men don’t fall down from the nightly heavens and land in someone’s backyard – especially not fully armoured, bloodstained, ridiculously handsome Hugo Boss models! They just don’t. In either eventuality they shouldn’t!  
Naturally she was really afraid, but she knew that she couldn’t simply call the ambulance and say something like ‘There is an odd guy with a glowing hand in my backyard, I’m afraid and I guess that he is injured and hypothermic!’ – In the best case an ambulance would arrive and take her to the next loony bin. And that would be a rather unfortunate development, in any case.  
  
Warming up his cold body would probably get him speaking again and then he could explain this whole chain of events in the most rational way possible. - Well, that’s what Katie hoped as she pushed the wheelbarrow with much effort into her entrance hall and turned the light on.  
  
  
  
She looked down at her sofa. Her old, tatty sofa in her shabby and even older living room, smelling like her grandma's soap. He lay there, a shivering knight, in full armour, his blue lips trembling and his gaze clouded. ’Quite an unusual sight to see in ones' living room’ Katie thought ,’never mind this green flickering on his hand.’  
  
A hushed moan of both, tiredness and excitement escaped her mouth. The stranger was nearly frozen to death and it didn’t matter that he appeared apparently out of nowhere in her back-yard, she carried him into her house and therefore she felt a little bit responsible for his well-being. Moreover, he obviously needed to warm up and she thought a nice warm bath would be nice after he warmed up, too, because Katie would hate for him to catch pneumonia. Seeing how blue his lips were it was likely that it had already began to set in. However, bathing him in full (and frozen) armour would not be helpful if she wanted to warm the stranger up and not to kill him. Ignoring her racing heart (she was sure that it would burst from her chest or something equally cartoonish) as well as the green mark on the man's hand, which stopped its constant flickering, hallelujah! she shucked out of her own jacket and she started to remove the armour. She knew that she had to get him out of those wet clothes or he’d catch his death. He was already slipping in and out of lucidity and she was sure that the stranger wouldn’t last long if she didn’t warm him up as fast as possible.  
  
The strange fur-ornate coat, or whatever the blonde’s clothing exactly was, his massive pauldrons as well as his gauntlets were the first things Katie pried off successfully, meanwhile the process of removing the breastplate appeared to be kinda tricky. She loosened the leather bands haltering the key piece of the man's armour, but it was wet and slippery and Katie simply couldn’t remove it with her already numb from the cold, fingers. "Oh jesus...Hey, dude!" she touched the knight’s ice-cold shoulders and looked into his eyes, eyes that were staring widely into the nothingness. "Do you wanna die in that icy armour?” She waited for an answer but as she expected he didn't reply. His golden gaze lost somewhere. "Hello?!" she shook him - probably a little bit to violently because this whole situation was undeniably more than she could deal with and suddenly amber met hazel and he looked directly into her eyes.  
  
A few moments later, Katie found herself lost in the man’s astonishingly beautiful eyes. Her heart twitched. The only emotions in that golden gaze were pain, forlorn and loss. "We have to remove your breastplate, but I dunno how. Help me. Please. Because I just wanna help you.” Katie’s tone was warm and suddenly she was ashamed of her earlier behaviour. She wanted to sooth at least a little bit of the hurt in the stranger’s expression. Katie couldn’t help but wonder once again what had happened to him. He opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something but after a short moment of hesitation, he closed it again, instead pointing at his back with a trembling, calloused hand. Kathrine followed his gesture and – surprise, surprise! – there was a buckle she’d completely ignored.  
  
After that, things went easily, at least until all parts of the stranger’s armour, as well as his massive boots and his completely drenched gambeson lay on the floor nearby the sofa. “Well…” Katie started, trying to ignore the burning in her checks supposedly colouring her face in an intense shade of red. She could feel the flush spreading across her cheeks and up onto her ears. She wanted to look away - she was so embarrassed. “We gonna warm you up and therefore…We have to get you a lil’ bit more undressed. Is that okay for you?” Katie asked completely aware that she looked without much doubt like a flaming red, awkward tomato.  
It wasn’t like she’d never seen a naked man before – she wasn’t a wallflower or anything, it were just the ridiculously strange circumstances that led into undressing that god of a man making her behave like a 15 year old fangirl seeing one of her idols suddenly in real life.  
  
And – of course – the stranger didn’t answer. He seemed to be mentally very, very far away, but at least he was lucid enough to stand.  
The man was deeply in need of her help and so Katie tried not to blush too hard as she helped the blonde to get rid of his wet linen shirt clinging to his abs. She paused as the shirt fell to the floor. Honestly, Katie had never seen a torso that looked so perfect. Not without the help of at least a dozen make-up artist and an old, good friend named Photoshop.  
  
After that, she peeled off his soaked leather trousers and the distinct smell of wet, real leather filled her living room. She hated the smell, but the fact that the stranger obviously wasn’t wearing any underwear really got her distracted from the unpleasant odour. She didn’t know how she managed that, but by god – Kathrine didn’t even take a look at…You know what.  
  
Instead, she registered that the man’s skin was ice cold and his shivering was getting worse. She’d to hurry up! Therefore, she wrapped the plaid lying on her sofa around his broad (and absolutely perfectly sculpted) shoulders and started rubbing his arms in slow circular motions, because she wanted to get the blood flowing again into his limb, pale hands. She worked herself down to his chest and down to his long legs, wondering where all those scars marking his muscular body came from. Maybe he was a soldier? That would definitely explain those muscles – But Katie didn’t allowed herself to get distracted by the beauty of that shivering Apollo.  
  
She registering that her rubbing wasn’t really effective and so she sat down beside him and moved to him, wrapping her arms around his neck and pressing her body against his, rolling her shoulders to ensure that no heat could escape their little cocoon. And even though that was the strangest thing she ever done in her whole life Katie didn’t want the stranger to go into shock, so she held him tight and tried to ignore the startled moan he gave as she settled against him, only murmuring a hush ”Sorry, I need to bring your body temperature back to normal. Please don’t move.”  
  
She felt his shivering and her cheeks flamed as she felt his muscular thigh move against her. Honestly, she was incredibly glad that he could not see her face, because feeling every curve and valley on his large body- all muscle and sinew- didn’t help her to feel less embarrassed or excited. After a while, Katie felt the heat slowly returning into the stranger’s body and his muscles relaxing as they warmed.He started to relax into her. And honestly: She was incredibly happy that his body finally started to respond to her warmth. Nonetheless, they stayed like that for what seemed to be hours, time passing slowly as she listened to the blonde’s now regular and strong heartbeat.  
Finally, Katie pulled away as his hands started to feel warm against hers. And even though he still looked dazed his cheeks were flushed and Katie was glad to see the colour had returned to his face, even though he obviously had to fight to stay awake. “Well…I guess we have to get the dirt out of those pretty locks of yours, don’t you think?”  
  
Therefore, Katie helped the man up him holding the plaid close to his chest and covering his nudity.  
Somehow, they got up the stairs leading to her bathroom, his arm around her fragile neck, her feeling the heat his body radiates.  
As the man was finally sitting in her bathtub, foam covering all his privy parts and she was gentle as she massaged his scalp and his golden locks with shampoo. Weird? Maybe, but she just couldn’t stand all the dirt and gore covering his face and hair (and worrying about being to intimate appeared too late after their cuddling session on the sofa). Katie really felt out of place, especially as the stranger closed his eyes, obviously enjoying the warm bath.  
However, she decided that it was the best thing to wait until next morning to question him.  
  
The man was drained, hurt, dazed and needed rest and because Katie didn’t want him to fall asleep in the bathtub she helped the stanger out of it and into her (for him way to short) pinkish bathrobe and lead him, still wobbly on his legs, into her bedroom and into her bed. She couldn’t remember the last time there was actual a man sleeping in it, but nonetheless Katie wrapped him in her duvet. All at once she realized that she didn’t only enjoy playing mother-hen but also that the “head wound” she firstly was worried about wasn’t more than a little scratch. 

“Well… If you need anything, like a cup of tea or something, or if you suddenly start speaking, then just call me, my name is Kathrine and…I think I gonna sleep on the sofa downstairs. Yeah…It must be very late already…Good night. ” But as she turned around Katie suddenly felt the strong grip of the strangers (praise god!) warm hand. “Ahm…”, Katie was confused by the gesture and instantly her heart started racing again, but as she looked into the stranger’s face she just couldn’t resist that puppy expression of him. How could a man she just found like 3 hours earlier in her backyard manipulate her in such a way!? “I can’t stay. I really need to take a shower and take care of your clothes and”- but he looked deep into her eyes and he seemed so lost and afraid that she just couldn’t leave him alone. “Okay buddy, I gonna stay a little bit here with you, but only 5 minutes, no more! Well, you have to move a little..”  
And so Katie lay down near a ruthlessly handsome stranger with a effing flickering hand she found wearing armour in her backyard, who was still holding her hand because he was too afraid of sleeping alone in her bed. That really sounded crazy, didn’t it? Thinking about all of those strange and completely crazy events Katie didn’t even realized she’d started to drift off. And before she knew it she was fast asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *I corrected various little mistakes, but if you spot anymore - pls write a comment or a pm^^' *


	3. About all the things Katie suddenly realizes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys!  
> RL insists on kicking my ass lately, but there it is- the chapter I wanted to post like a month ago? o.o'  
> However, thanks for reading and commenting. That really means a lot to me! And thank you for the kudos!!! <3 I'm feeling absolutely fame because of them ;)

It was not her alarm clock waking her up, nor the annoyingly loud ringing of her phone downstairs in the early morning hours.

It was midday’s sunlight finding its way through the heavy material of her bedroom’s curtains and the soft tickling of warm breath against the fine hair on her neck.

Honestly, it took a while until Katie understood the reason for her current state of bliss. It was the warm body sleeping quietly next to her, arm wrapped around her. Really, it was the first time, in what felt like a thousand years that she’d had a good night rest.      

But how…? Katie -half asleep yet- started to wonder. Why wasn’t she at work? And whose arm was wrapped around her, holding her tight against his muscular chest?

 _Shit._ Suddenly realization hit Katie with all its might as she started to remember the crazy events of the evening.

Her heart started racing as she frantically tried to understand that it was the half-frozen stranger she was spooning with, that it was – _what was his name again? Ah, Cullen_ \- nuzzling against her neck, making her feel so secure. And realization is not a guest visiting without the company of its best friend sorrow.

 _Oh no…we slept away the day…I_ _didn’t hear the alarm clock go off on a workday…Jesus, how should I explain this at work?!_ _‘_ _Sorry, I overslept, because,_ _’_ _no… Wait, you’re waking up next to a stranger with a glowing hand_ \- her gaze wandered down to the particular hand, lingering on the green crystal shimmering in a pale greenish light, ornating it like a frightening but somehow beautiful gem  _– and the first thing you think about is your job? Oh my god…I slept the whole night cuddling with that guy…After washing his hair…_ \- She felt the color rising up to her cheeks – _How could you do that? Maybe he is an alien? Or some kind of creepy cyborg who is going to kill you?_ But then Katie remembered the stranger’s eyes, those beautiful ambers and the expression of hurt and lost she’d seen in them. Somehow, she knew that it was childish, naïve and absolutely stupid, but something deep inside her soul told her that man wouldn’t hurt her. The only thing Katie knew was that he needed her help. And that she urgently needed a shower.

Gently and cautiously, she lifted the muscular arm holding her and left the warm coziness of her bed, the pitter-patter of her small feet on her way to the wardrobe the only other sound than the quiet breathing of the blonde sleeping in the utter chaos of her bed. Cullen’s curly hair covered most of his face and the rumpled bedspread revealed more of the stranger’s perfectly sculpted shoulders and muscular legs than Katie was comfortable with at the moment, considering how they spent the night.

It didn’t take her long to find a pair of jeans and a loose-fitting, wine red cardigan for her to wear. Suddenly, out of nowhere she realized that the blonde’s clothes weren’t in a wearable state at all. She remembered that she actually had some menswear somewhere in the dark, unholy corners of her wardrobe. Clothes she bought for Steve, her ex, after she ruined his clothes accidentally on a date, long before. – It still hurt to think about him and so she decided to think about matters that were definitely more urgent as her ex. She pulled out a pair of dark denim jeans and a white shirt, as well as some socks and underwear. _Might be a little bit tight around the chest but I guess it’s better than my pink bathrobe either way._

Leaving the clothes in a stack on a chair nearby the bed – just in case the stranger- _Cullen_ , she reminded herself - woke up while she was in the shower; Katie left the room the blonde was sleeping peacefully in.

 

Sometimes there is nothing better than a shower for saving a day. Today was one of those days in Katie’s life.

The warm water helped her to wash away at least some of the stress (along with the pitiful ketchup remnants out of her light brown hair) and the time it took gave her the break she needed desperately to think about what she should do next.

She stepped out of the shower, feeling wonderfully refreshed, but the pale girl’s face adorned with wet streaks of hair looking out of the bathroom’s mirror directly into her eyes reminded her immediately that her boss was likely going to kill her for staying at home on the 24th of December and that there was still the unsolved problem with the stranger in her bedroom. 

It still seemed difficult for Katie to comprehend how she actually got into the situation in which she was now. And why her heart started to beat faster when every thought to the eerily beautiful man. She tried to scare away that particular thought on the way to the phone in her hall.

Surprisingly her boss, Mr. Williams, bought her excuse (a story about a really nasty gastrointestinal virus) and even gave her a few days off, a rare miracle to happen. Generally he appeared to be way nicer since his son and she broke up – why was she thinking about her shit of an ex again?!- Maybe it was his way to make her life easier after the way Steve behaved? Maybe he was ashamed because of his son’s behavior?Katie realized that she really did not care and that a few days off were the perfect possibility to help the stranger. If he needed her help at all.

Everything seemed fine and she headed for the kitchen. Suddenly felt something touching her shoulder.

Almost frightened to death, she spurted around hitting the blur she saw from the corner of her eye on instinct – and struck the man standing behind her in the middle of his handsome face. She definitely was not a girl to mess with.

“Ouch!”

“Shit! You can’t just sneak behind me like that!” Katie shouted at Cullen, who was holding his nose with both hands, his face turned away from her. “Oh my, I’m so sorry”, Katie added in a much softer tone, touching the man’s shoulder, turning him around to her ,”You can’t just scare the shit out of me like that…Lemme see your face …”

“I apologize. It was not my intention to frighten you, my Lady”, Cullen removed the hand covering the nose she’d attacked insidiously.

And then it happened. Again, Katie’s eyes met Cullen’s and somehow the universe decided that time was boring and that it just had to stop passing. She lost herself completely in those warm amber eyes. This magical moment seemed to be endless, but suddenly the blonde cleared his throat and started to study the floor with the intensity of a scholar studying some ancient artifact, his hand rubbing his neck.

“Ahem… I…” he started, but Katie interrupted him immediately.

“What did you call me?”

“I beg your pardon?” Cullensounded as confused as it was probably appropriate to the circumstances.

“What did you just call me?”

“Do you mean “my Lady”? I apologize once again if that appeared to be inappropriate or not fitting your title, I just didn’t know how to call you and…”  
  
“Kathrine Perlman.”  
  
“Sorry?”

  
“That’s my name. Kathrine Perlman. But everybody calls me just Katie. And I’m quite sure that I’m not a lady, nor do I have any title…” she said, and somehow the whole situation appeared to be terribly awkward, getting more awkward with every second they both stayed in the hall not knowing how to speak with each other. “And what’s your name?”  
  
“Cullen Stanton Rutherford of Honnleath, my La-, I mean Kathrine.” he said and Katie could not help but wonder, whether he would be a good singer or not. Seeing he had such a smooth speaking voice. Never mind the fact that something about the way he said Kathrine made her nervous, but in a positive way.

“Well…Cul-ahem, Mr. Rutherford?” _Mr. Rutherford? What’s wrong with you_ _? He isn’t that old!_

“Please, call me Cullen. I think after…” a light shade of pink was creeping up his neck to his cheeks and ears. “You saved my life yesterday, it’s more than appropriate that…That you call me Cullen and…” He paused clearing his throat in an akward but adorable way, before he continued “Ahem… And I wanted to express my gratitude for saving my life and for providing these garments,” he said, pointing at the white T-Shirt and the jeans he was wearing. “I would like to explai-“ Cullen’s stomach started growling and his pinkish face turned into a bright shade of red. “Maker’s breath! I’m sorry, I just-”  
“When was the last time you ate anything?” Katie asked, wondering about the strange exclamation.  
“I don’t remember. And regretfully I have to inform you, that I do not remember how I got here, or where we are, or…What that is” he waved his hand showing the green mark.  
  
“First breakfast and then talking?” Katie asked him, surprised how she managed to stay as calm as she was. “Even though I don’t know whether we can actually call it a breakfast, it’s about 12-o-clock already…But I’m starving! What do you think about pancakes?”  
  
“Pancakes? “, he seemed to be very confused. “I beg your pardon, but I’ve never heard of such a meal, my La-Kathrine.”  
  
“Well, then you have to try my pancakes!” Katie exclaimed and pulled a completely confused stranger into the kitchen…

 

 


End file.
